The parents of babies murdered by the former nurse Lucy Letby have said conspiracy theorists should be “ashamed”, in a statement read by a lawyer to a public inquiry.
Letby, 34, was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
The inquiry, led by Lady Justice Thirlwall at Liverpool town hall, will examine events at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit, where Letby was a nurse from 2015 to 2016. Letby was first arrested in 2018 and convicted in 2023 and 2024.
There have been numerous reports highlighting the doubts of some over Letby’s convictions, including a group of neonatal experts and statisticians who have called on the government to postpone or change the terms of the inquiry over their concerns.
At the inquiry on Thursday, Richard Baker KC, a barrister speaking on behalf of the parents of Children C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, O, P and R, five of whom were murdered by Letby, said: “Everybody who recklessly promotes conspiracy theories, or who parrots them without questioning the same tired misconceptions about this case, should be ashamed of themselves.
“The families, along with the jury, collectively sat through 10 months of evidence – in the case of Family K two trials. They did so with impressive dignity, they heard the evidence against her and have no doubt that she was guilty. The jury had no doubt that she was guilty.
“The trial was overseen by an experienced high court judge and reviewed comprehensively with care by the court of appeal.
“This process, conducted with scrupulous fairness and with exhausting detail, is arrogantly ignored by those who criticise the outcome. Those individuals offer superficial opinions based upon second- or third-hand accounts, expressing conclusions that it may be generous to call on occasion half-baked.
“In the meantime, the families, a jury, the judge, the court of appeal and even the team who represented Letby at trial must remain silent while others use the losses suffered by those families as currency to build their own reputations.”
Baker revealed that babies’ breathing tubes were dislodged at a disproportionate rate during Letby’s placements in late 2012 and early 2015 at Liverpool women’s hospital.
He told the inquiry that collapses of babies in neonatal units caused by events such as dislodgement of endotracheal tubes – a feature of some of the allegations levelled at Letby during her criminal trials – was “uncommon”.
He said: “It generally occurs in less than 1% of shifts.
“You will hear that an audit carried out by Liverpool women’s hospital recorded that whilst Lucy Letby was working there, dislodgement of endotracheal tubes occurred in 40% of shifts that she worked. One may wonder why.”
Liverpool Women’s NHS foundation trust has previously confirmed it was working with Cheshire police on the investigation into Letby’s time at the hospital.
Earlier, Peter Skelton KC, representing the families of Children A, B, I, L, M, N and Q, two of whom were murdered, said parents were “kept in the dark” by the Countess of Chester hospital over the collapse of their babies and the concerns and investigations that were subsequently undertaken.
“They should have been told not when those investigations had concluded but as soon as they were initiated. Not telling them was morally indefensible,” he said.
“It is indicative of a healthcare culture that remains even now paternalistic and secretive. Additionally – and of more practical importance – it meant that the investigations themselves did not capture information that only the parents could have given or answered questions that only the parents would have asked.”
The inquiry continues and is expected to last nearly five months.
